The new Multi-Bin product is currently under development and is planned for an early 2016 release. It will be available to purchase as a stand-alone product from DSD Business Systems, as well as through ScanForce as a bundled Multi-Bin & Warehouse Management Solution. The Multi-Bin product will be available for Sage 100 versions 4.50, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

This announcement appears to be in response to the July 27, 2015 announcement of ONE for Sage 100 which combined the resources of three leading ISVs for Sage 100, including the most widely used multi-bin developer ACS Group, into a suite of solutions that potentially caused competitors such as Scanforce to be left without a multi-bin offering compatible with future Sage 100 releases.

Todays announcement raises several questions about whether Sage themselves might invest in creating a multi-bin feature enhancement for Sage 100 as well as the level of compatibility the DSD-Scanforce multi-bin might eventually have with competing products.

Although the initial press release states “The new Multi-Bin product will be designed to work exclusively with the ScanForce Warehouse Management Solution” it remains to be seen whether the enhancement will also be compatible with third party manufacturing solutions such as JobOps,

One of our 90 Minds members asked for a contact name for Scanforce. I had one – and I also provided the private testimonial (visibile only to our group).

What developers and publishers should gather from the image above:

VARS have developed private “back channel” communication avenues (we use Socialcast) to share opinions candidly without the worries of the LinkedIn or Social Media police calling or swooping in to ask why the VAR might be disparaging or touting a particular competing company or product.

The increasing reality? Companies now have virtually zero control over private discussion. And in my view a private recommendation (either favorable or unfavorable) is 100x more powerful than a public one.

Opinions shared outside the spotlight of a public venue are often much more candid and trusted than ones shared in a public forum where nobody is sure whether the opinions are laced with conflict of interest (is the person paid by the company they are touting?).

The only way the company can control these back channel discussions is by always doing the right thing by partners

Public discussion forums are still a great place to begin gathering information. Increasingly though they’re fraught with conflicts of interest that are not always apparent.

Developers and publishers can pay (directly or indirectly) for certain consultants to highly tout their experiences — or the developer and publishers cans just act ethically, responsibly and fairly with everyone they deal with.